The present invention relates to a novel and useful apparatus for producing a pulsing flow of fluid to a fluid line from compressed air and liquid sources.
Heat exchangers include conduits along parallel paths that are widely employed for carrying cooling and heating fluids in the automotive, aviation, and marine systems. For example, such devices may include condensers, automatic transmission air coolers, engine oil air coolers, fuel coolers, heater cores, radiators, and air conditioning evaporators, and the like.
A problem exists with such heat exchangers in that they become partially or completely clogged and contaminated over time due to deposits of materials from the cooling fluids. The problem of contamination has often been extensive enough to require removal and replacement of heat exchanger equipment.
In the past, many of the methods for cleaning and unclogging fluid circuits, using strictly chemical means, has proven to be time consuming, ineffective, incomplete, and expensive. Also, the problem of collection and recovery of used cleaning fluids poses an environmental hazard and entails further expense.
In the past, a novel system for cleaning heat exchanger circuits was proposed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,695. Although successful to a large degree, the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,695 is bulky and has a structure that makes it difficult to control of the flow of air at the air entry portion of such a system.
An efficient and compact apparatus for the production of a pulsing flow of liquid in order to clean a heat exchanger would be a notable advance in the mechanical arts.